1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a washer for vehicle parts and, more particularly, to a washer using a recirculated solvent which is cleansed each recirculation cycle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In vehicle repair shops, it is often necessary to clean dirt and grease from parts removed from vehicles undergoing repair. These parts must be cleansed with a solvent capable of removing oil and grease from the parts. Before the part can be reinstalled in the vehicle, virtually all of the dirt and grease must often be removed therefrom. For example, vehicle wheel bearings removed from a vehicle must be repacked with grease or other lubricant. However, all of the dirt and grease must first be removed from the bearing surfaces. This task has been conventionally accomplished by washing the parts with a series of fresh solvent batches. However, this procedure is extremely wasteful since is requires at least one fresh batch of solvent for each vehicle part. Since the solvent is somewhat expensive and is not easily disposed of, the conventional method of washing parts is unacceptable. One solution for the problems associated with the conventional parts cleaning method is to recirculate the solvent. The recirculated solvent is then cleansed during each recirculation cycle. Filtering is one possible cleansing method. However, the large amount of dirt and grease removed from the parts quickly clogs up the filter. The solvent may also be cleansed by holding the used solvent in a settling basin wherein the heavier-than-solvent particles drop to the bottom of the basin. The relatively clean solvent is subsequently removed from the basin and reused. However, this method removes only heavier-than-solvent particles; particles suspended in the solvent flow out of the basin with the solvent.